Having long since overcome the pretty boy canard, Johnny Depp seems to have now moved into "actor's actor" territory: he was just nominated for the best actor Oscar for the second year in a row, this time for his role as J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, in Finding Neverland, following last year's nom for his Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Following my tradition of not catching much of anything in the theater you wouldn't take a 5 year-old to see, I can't comment yet on Finding Neverland , but Depp's thriller Secret Window, based on a novella by Stephen King, debuted on HBO Saturday night, and following that we put on the DVD of Pirates again, being a flick mightily in the favor of the whole family. Besides we wanted to get the bad taste of Secret Window out of our collective mouths.
In Window, Depp plays a mystery writer who suffered/inflicted the mutual trauma of finding his wife (Maria Bello) at a motel with another man (Timothy Hutton) six months earlier, and who has been living in rustic near-isolation on a lake in upsate New York ever since, trying to write, taking a lot of naps, and trying to come to grips with a life teetering in the balance.
He is accosted by a menacing Mississippi backwoods writer (John Turturro) who claims Depp stole his story about a man who murders his wife and published it under his own name, which is bad enough, but worse still it becomes clear, is the allegation that Depp changed the ending of the story.
What begins promisingly enough deteriorates into a series of — and this is difficult to achieve — increasingly implausible AND increasingly predictable contretemps and revelations that yield a wholly unsatisfying ending which I am certain you can guess just from what little I've dribbled thus far. And it isn't even very scary or suspenseful.
No matter: my concern here is Depp, and a powerful, charismatic actor can still shine in a bad movie, but shine here Depp does not. He is wooden, mannered in his "distracted and troubled artist" get-up: multicolored mangy hair, tattered, holey sweater, vacant look in his bespectacled eyes. He can't seem to muster the wherewithal to play terrified or terrifying (as appropriate), and the only time he seems to fully inhabit the role is when he is sacked out on the couch: THAT he does with conviction.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Alan Dale
Have you seen Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico? I think his performance would definitely go in your "crackling" category. He's pretty funny.
2 - Dawn
Excellent review!
3 - Eric Olsen
no, haven't seen that one Alan, will do per your advise
thanks Dawn, I find these kind of reviews sort of reflect our collective experience to a certain extent
4 - Eric Olsen
where did the last several comments go?
5 - Briony
So sad you didn't see the nuances of Depp's performance in Secret Window. I will admit that it, like The Brave and Arizona Dream, is definitely not one of the most accessible films and requires a bit of thought. Perhaps that's the problem. Thinking and film don't seem to go hand in hand for most Americans. A pity, but true. Depp's performance in Secret Window was incredibly subtle, layered and complex. Evidently, it was too complex for you to comprehend.
6 - Eric Olsen
so "incredibly subtle" as to be nonexistent?
7 - TDavid
Just testing the comments, please ignore this post (or remove, moderators)
8 - Julie
I really dispise this article about Depp's role as Mort Rainy. I think the way you critisized the way Depp played Mort was very much critisizing Stephen King as a writer. So this is where I first ask you, have you read the short story Secret Window Secret Garden? Mort, in which case, was rarely scared in the story. Depp is true to his characters, wouldn't change a character unless he saw fit, I doubt Depp saw fit. If I was Mort in that situation I would have been more confused and ticked off then anything, which I think Depp played pefectly. And how in the world did you think to compare Mort and Jack, they are two completely different roles in completely different times. To say that Depp did a better job as Jack then as Mort is just.. wrong. Secret Window is my favorite movie, Johnny Depp is my favorite actor and Stephen King is my favorite writer. The director of the movie took everything from the short story, including the character of Mort and everything that went with him. I think Depp did justic to Mort from the short story. I don't think it is fair to critisize Depp for such a role that went so well with the short story. The only thing to critisize would be the character that Stephen King created.
9 - S.A.W
I completely disagree with your article above. You look to Secret Window like it some loosly tied story that has no point, and has no interest. So therefore not only are you critizing Johnny Depp as an actor but you are critizing Stephen King as a writer. No, it isn't one of Depp's best films; No, it isn't one of King's best stories. Secret Window I found was highly entertaining, and not only in the sense of it being humourous. I myself thought it was suspenseful because I couldn't wait to see what would happen next and I was on pinpoints. Also, I think it is a bit unfair to be comparing the character of Morton Rainy with Captain Jack Sparrow. Sparrow as you said is full of energy whereas Rainy on the other hand is well, as he said in his own words in the film a "sloth". Sparrow and Rainy are to completely opposite characters and there is nothing to compare them with. Saying one film was better than the other. They are two differnt stories, two different time periods, and two different characters.
10 - Eric Olsen
Julie, you may despise the article and that's okay, you may love Secret Window in prose and on screen, and think Johnny Depp to be the platonic embodiment of a thespian, but I still found the movie to be wan, slack, somewhat nonsensical, and like a bad Creepshow episode without any of the pulpy relish that might have at least rendered it fun. Sorry, I must rain on your perfect storm, but that's just my opinion.
Oh, and I am allowed to compare the two characters because they are the same actor and we watched them on the same night.
11 - Julie
Ah, yes, we are aloud to have different opinions about Depp or even the movie, or story its self. But you have yet to answer my question on if you read Secret Window Secret Garden or not?
12 - Jamie
Okay where to start. One I don't think Johnny Depp plays his roles so people can compare them. He is a unique actor who goes his own way rather than Hollywood's direction. Secret Window is in a different category than POTC. Secret Window was a very good movie, it was great! Pirates was also. If you have read Secret Window, Secret Garden, it follows fairly well, enough so you won't get stuck watching a 3 hour movie. Altogether to get to my freaking point if you don't like it, write and perform something better?!
13 - Joe
I think the role of Mort Rainey would have better suited Orlando Bloom as he is mucho en fuego.
14 - Eric Olsen
Joe, good point, that.
No, Julie, I haven't read the story.
S.A.W., you are sort of agreeing with me in spite of yourself, aren't you?
Jamie, I don't think the point really is whether or not I can write a beter story than Stephen King (I think I have one or two better than his worst, but who knows?) or act better than Johnny Depp (I am certain I can't), the point is that in a brief two-year period Depp made two movies at opposite ends of the spectrum on almost every level, including the quality of his performance, and I thought that was funny and worth pointing out.
I like Johnny Depp a lot and have enjoyed many of his performances, but sometimes even a fine actor such as he kind of sucks.
15 - Julie
Jamie, I completely and utterly agree with everything you just said.
Eric, I was taught in Newspaper to never right your opinion out unless you have seen and read everything. I don't think you can completely say that Depp did a horrible job at Mort Rainy if you haven't read the short story. Stephen King wrote Mort the way he wrote him, to critisize Depp for acting and fallowing something that was already laid out before is just low. Would you rather Depp change the character? Think of your favorite book, or story. If they put that movie onto the big screen, would you want the actor to change the main character?
And I don't think Orlando Bloom could have done a great job at the type of character Mort Rainy was.
16 - S.A.W
No, I am not agreeing with you, at all. Your article is completely in the wrong to me. I have been asking people who have seen both films and they all say the same thing. You cannot judge one movie and character an actor plays to another. You just cannot, they are different characters, different stories. And as you said they are at different end of the spectrum. So how can you compare one thing to one side to the other? You can't. I am not agreeing with you even a tiny bit. I DO agree with Jamie though. And Julie.
17 - Joel Caris
I actually thought Depp was pretty decent in Secret Window. He was easily the best part of the movie for me. I would say he was more a victim of the writing. The movie itself was pretty bad. It started out interesting and then became interminable. I really wanted it to be over but it kept dragging on to that completely mediocre ending.
I will agree that Depp was a hundred times better in Pirates. He definitely had more energy and was much more involved in the role. He also had much more to work with.
18 - Eric Olsen
I have no doubt whatsoever that Depp was playing to the material at hand, that he did his best with what he had to work with, but that again supports my point that the great roles take over the actor rather than the other way around, and Mort was not a great role and it did not "take him over."
YOu keep asking me how I can compare two very different roles: by doing it, which I did. You don't have to agree.
19 - Sydney
Those 2 movies were AWESOME!!! Please don't critize them anymore.
20 - Eric Olsen
please note the name of the site
21 - Eric Olsen
well said and amiable, if still perversely mistaken (smile)
22 - Dawn
Eric, you are so mean to critize the uber talented and super sexy Johnny Depp, he is the GREATEST HUMAN BEING WHO HAD EVER LIVED.
You SUCK!
23 - Aaman
Eric, is that THE Dawn, or not?:)
24 - Aaman
Also, have you seen the light?
25 - Eric Olsen
THE Dawn as in my Dawn (not that I own her or anything) - I believe it is, and the light pours over me.